Population & Reproductive Rights

Dr. Leslie R. Wolfe is President of the Center for Women Policy Studies, the Nation’s first feminist policy institute, founded in 1972. The Center’s mission today is what it was at its founding – to improve women’s lives and ensure women’s human rights through enlightened public policy.

A hallmark of the Center’s work is the multiethnic feminist lens through which we view all issues affecting women and girls. The Center’s Contract With Women of the USA® sets out 12 key principles for women’s human rights and equality, derived from the 1995 UN Platform for Action adopted in Beijing. With its national network of women state legislators in all 50 states, the Center works to transform these principles into public policy. See www.centerwomenpolicy.org for more about the Center’s signature programs).

Location

Judy Waxman is Vice President of Health and Reproductive Rights at the National Women's Law Center. She pioneers advocacy, policy and educational strategies to promote the quality and availability of health care, including reproductive choice, for American women. Prior to joining the National Women's Law Center, Ms. Waxman served as Deputy Executive Director at Families USA for over a decade. In that capacity, she worked to achieve high quality, affordable health and long-term care for all Americans and was a leader on grassroots and activities on Medicaid, Medicare and other health care access legislative issues. She previously served as a Professional Staff Member with the Pepper Commission (the United States Bipartisan Commission on Comprehensive Health Care). Ms.

Location

Melissa Upreti is Regional Director for Asia at the Center for Reproductive Rights. In her ten years at the Center, she has helped position the Center as a leading advocate of women’s reproductive rights in the region and in the international arena. She has led fact-finding missions to investigate violations of women’s rights resulting from restrictive abortion laws in Nepal and the Philippines and has helped develop pioneering legal strategies to secure accountability for maternal deaths in India and access to safe abortion in Nepal. Melissa Upreti has conceptualized and co-authored several leading publications on women’s reproductive rights in Asia including two regional studies of laws and policies that affect women’s reproductive health and lives, fact-finding reports on controversial topics and analytical studies.

Location

Jessica González-Rojas is the Executive Director of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, the only national reproductive justice organization that specifically works to advance reproductive health and rights for Latinas.  Jessica spearheads research, field organizing, and advocacy operations in the organization's New York headquarters as well as its Washington DC policy office, and is a national spokesperson and leading national advocate for Latinas.  She has been a member of the strategic management team at NLIRH for five years, where she played a pivotal role in establishing the organization as a leading voice for Latinas in national policy discussions in Washington DC and in targeted states, and where she forged new partnerships with allied movements such as immigration, sexual health and rights, and anti-violence. 

Location

Sharon L. Camp is President and CEO of the Guttmacher Institute, the leading policy research organization in the field of sexual and reproductive health. Prior to joining Guttmacher, Dr. Camp was President and CEO of Women’s Capital Corporation, a start-up company responsible for the development and commercialization of Plan B emergency contraception. For many years the leading spokesperson in Washington, DC for international family planning programs, she was also largely responsible for bringing together the highly successful International Consortium for Emergency Contraception and served until April 1998 as its Coordinator. From 1975 to 1993, Dr. Camp was Senior Vice President of Population Action International, managing PAI’s professional staff involved in lobbying, media liaison, policy research and publications.

Location

Jamia Wilson is Vice President of Programs at the Women’s Media Center. Jamia has a strong background in youth leadership development, grassroots organizing, and communications. She worked for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, where she managed their youth outreach program Vox: Voices for Planned Parenthood and served on the PPFA Structure and Governance Committee and the Pro-Choice Education Project Steering Committee. After working with coalition partners and campus organizations to help bring thousands of students to the historic March for Women’s Lives, Jamia was honored as one of the “Real Hot 100" by the Younger Women’s Taskforce.

Location